It’s Falcons Mt. Rushmore nomination time

The nominations for the various teams’ Mt. Rushmores are driving more interest in the process than we ever thought they would.

Hopefully, when we start the voting for each team’s final four sculpted stone heads and when we unveil the lists on Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network, the interest will be even higher

Here’s a chance to show high interest in the nominees for a franchise that, before 2008, had plenty of low points. Before 2009, the Falcons never had consecutive winning seasons. They’ve now had five in a row, which means that some of the folks responsible for the team’s recent success could make it onto the short list of their all-time best.

Nominate below the folks you think should be on the Falcons’ giant mountain of immortality. (That takes on an entirely different meaning if you forget to add one of the t’s.)

Tommy Nobis; still doesn’t get credit for the player he was because he labored for terrible teams.
Deion Sanders; hate how he left but deserves to be there
William Andrews; No disrespect to Turner (drafted elswhere) or Gerald Riggs (finsished elselwhere) but Andrews reamains the greatest back ever drafted by Atlanta
Mike Kenn; Greatest lineman in franchise history

However Matt Ryan will push one of them off the mountain before his career is done.

No offense, Falcon fans, but there don’t seem to be any obvious names. It seems like every player mentioned is either better known for playing with another team or is a current player who hasn’t proved enough yet.

To all the stupid people saying Deion is a Cowboy, he went into to the HoF as a Falcon! The player chooses what team they will go in for, and Deion chose the Falcons. I was at the game when he got his HoF ring. Hell, he was even in the Rise Up commercial.

Dan Reeves (Only SB Coach)
Arthur Blank (Best Owner we’ve had)
Dion Sanders (Defense)(1 of only 3 Falcons in HOF)
Matt Ryan (Offense) (Leading this team during it’s most prolific run in it’s history and is on track to pass the teams current all-time passer in Steve Bartkowski within the next 2 seasons)

First and foremost, Tommy Nobis HAS to be on it. It is a shame he is not in the hall of fame.

Secondly I would go with Jessie Tuggle “The Hammer” definitely needs to be on this.

Thirdly would be Jamal Anderson. The dirty bird lead the Falcons to Super Bowl 33.

Finally this spot is hard.. Could go, Steve Bartowski, Claude Humphries, Jeff Van Note, Deion Sanders, Matt Ryan, or even Arthur Blank… but my final spot goes to Matt Ryan. He has help lead a team that had not had back to back winning seasons to 5 straight winning seasons and took over that mess after Michael Vick so I believe he deserves the final spot.

Not easy for this franchise, but there some solid players who never received the national respect they should have due to the pathetic ownership of the Smith’s.

Tommy Nobis – If you don’t know who he is, do a little research. Start with Larry Csonka, who remarked, “I’d rather play against Dick Butkus than Tommy Nobis.”

Mike Kenn – Outside of fewer than 10 games missed because of injury, he started every game at LT for 17 years. 251 starts. 2 time, 1st team all-pro, 5 time pro bowler. Incredible player.

Deion Sanders – Started in Atlanta, made his name in Atlanta. Not one of the 4 best players in any other team’s history that he played for during his quest for superbowls. Deserves to be on a Mt. Rushmore somewhere, so this is the team to put him on.

The 4th spot is the tough one. You can make strong cases for about 6 players here. Claude Humphries, Steve Bartkowski, Jeff Van Note, Jessie Tuggle, Keith Brooking, Matt Ryan, maybe even a few more. But regardless of who you go with for #4, the top 3 HAVE to be on there.

But including front office the current regime would dominate it
Blank
Dimitroff
Mike Smith
Matt Ryan.
Yeah sure they haven’t won anything. But neither has the history of the franchise. We are witnessing the greatest era of falcon football. Never having back to back winning seasons till the 3 showed up now having 5 straight. No question they get the nod.

Don’t know enough about the Falcons outside of the past 20 years or so. I see people mentioning some people that I would like to go see highlights of for sure, as I am always interested in the history of the game and players from the past.

This all being said, I will agree–this team has an amazing front office and Demtroff and Blanc should be considered.

As far as players, Prime Time and Tuggle automatically come to mind to me. I’d also say Keith Brooking, Jamal Anderson, Warrick Dunn could go here–I think he had better years and production more so in ATL than TB–plus he is a minority owner now, or so I thought I read that somewhere; Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Andre Rison, Scott Case and Gerald Riggs would round out my suggestions.

I think Vick could of been at some point but we all know how that turned out and Tony G–in my mind–will always be a Kansas City Chief all-time great and a vast majority of his production/stats/career was there.

The 4th one was a little close for me b/c of the position Kenn played (others may say Bartowski, Humphries, Andrews, or Brooking were more memorable) but Kenn played in Atlanta for so long and started for over 15 years, plus stayed in the city after to hold public office and open a restaurant. I would put Van Note next.

I had a bad feeling lame Falcons fans would try to claim Gonzalez…yeah right…hes a Chief…its also funny to see fans out Ryan on there. Its fitting because Ryan has accomplished nothing and neither have the Falcons